Hello everyone! It is Monday, September 6th, and I’ve made a Florida flag from a metal diamond. Here’s how it turned out and the steps I took.
First, I created a vision for my final diamond product in Illustrator. I took a vector graphic image of a simple outline of Florida (my home state) from The Noun Project and placed it in the middle of the diamond. It took some time to figure out how to align the outline in place and rotate it, but the design turned out great!
The diamond design I used for the plasma cutter features a Florida outline in the middle.
After that, I sent the diamond design to the plasma cutter and cut it from a 1/4-inch plate of steel. The instructions were clear, and I cut the metal pieces as per the recommended specifications. Here are some photos of the cutter in action:
The diamonds turned out surprisingly well, and even though the Florida outline was a complex shape, it still resulted in a diamond that was exactly how I designed it in Illustrator.
Back side of the plasma-cut diamonds.
Front side of the plasma-cut diamonds.
I then used an angle grinder to remove all the dross and slag from the diamonds.
The diamonds after angle grinding.
Then, I sandblasted the pieces to remove any surface dust and debris on the metal and to prepare the diamonds’ surfaces for powder coating.
The diamonds after sand blasting.
Next, I thought about what I wanted my diamond surface design to be. I settled on a design that is based on a Florida state flag, as shown below (except that I didn’t want the seal in the middle because it was too complex to execute):
First, I brought the design to powder coat the diamonds with white powder. It took me a while to figure out how to set up the air compressor and the powder gun, as well as how to make the powder adhere. However, I eventually worked out how to apply an even coat of white powder to the diamond. I had to apply an additional coat of white powder to the diamonds, as some of the powder didn’t adhere to the metal in the first attempt. After that, I placed the diamonds inside a powder coating oven, where I heated them to 400°F for approximately 20 minutes. I was surprised by the result, as the resulting diamonds had a lacquered, clean white surface.
The diamonds after the first coat of white powder.
(Front side) The diamonds after the second coat of white powder.
(Back side) The diamonds after the first coat of white powder.
Next, I attempted to smooth out some of the rough edges on the diamonds using a file.
I then applied a layer of primer on the metal diamonds and left them to dry for an hour. However, when I came back to wipe off the primer, some of it got stuck to the metal, so I had to remove the excess using towels and 320-grit sandpaper.
The diamonds after applying the primer.
After that, I laser-cut a wooden jig that has a cross similar to the red cross of the Florida flag, from which I would spray paint the diamonds using red spray paint. I created the design using Illustrator and attempted to match the outlines of the diagonal cross on the flag.
Then, using the Epilog M2 laser cutter, I cut out the jigs using 1/4-inch plywood. Here are my settings:
- 38% speed
- 100% power
- 50% frequency
- 5 cycles
The finished wooden jig pieces!
To set up the jig, I first secured one of the metal diamonds to one of the jig pieces using blue duct tape, ensuring that the cross-hole lines up with the middle of the diamond. Then, I placed another jig piece on top, being careful to align the top jig piece with the bottom jig piece. Finally, I secured the two jig pieces together using duct tape.
Attaching the diamonds to the jig!
I took the diamonds with the attached jig pieces and spray-painted them with the red spray paint. I then left them out to dry overnight.
The diamonds after spray painting the red cross!
The white diamond with the red cross after removing the jig.
The resulting cross design was great, but then I realized that using the sandpaper on the metal resulted in a slightly scratched metal that was hard to fix. So, I had to apply another coat of white powder on the diamonds and spray-paint the crosses, effectively repeating these processes over again. For a future attempt, I would either skip the primer altogether or apply it to the metal immediately after sandblasting.
While the paint dried, I worked on a seal design in Illustrator that will be placed in the middle of both sides of the diamond. Note that parts of the circles will be removed because of the Florida-shaped hole in the middle of each diamond.
The front-side vinyl cut design.
The back side vinyl cut design.
I sent the design over to the Cricut Explore 4, which cut the design on a piece of yellow vinyl. I then very carefully placed the vinyl cuts on the metal diamonds.
The yellow vinyl after cutting on the Cricut machine.
(Front side) The finished diamonds!
(Back side) The finished diamonds!
After that, the diamonds are done (well, after labeling them with my name, class section, and the post-processing steps). I’m proud of the result, primarily since I used many techniques to post-process the metal diamond. There were a few things that I could have done better. First, because the primer ended up sticking to the metal, I would apply the primer before doing any powder coating or spray painting. Second, I would be more careful with spray painting the red cross because some of the residue from the red spray paint ended up on the diamond, leading me to sand it off. Finally, I tested an initial design for the yellow vinyl that had text on it, but it didn’t come out as well as I had hoped because the text appeared small on the piece of vinyl I used. Therefore, I would need to account for this small text in a future attempt.
These diamonds are the first of five project entries in the EDES 210 project train. Stay tuned for the next entry!
And of course, here’s the workspace of the powder coating when everything was set and done.
Cost Breakdown
Materials:
- White powder coating (source: here) = $9.99
- 1 can of red spray paint (source: here) = $5.86
- 1 12-inch x 6-foot sheet of glossy yellow vinyl roll (source: here) = $5.97
- 1 12-inch x 6-inch 0.018 gauge stainless steel (source: here) = $8.59
- 1 x 24 in. x 24 in. sheet of 1/4-in. thick plywood (source: here) = $7.28
Tools and Equipment:
- Renting an angle grinder (source: here): $18.00 (for 4 hours)
- Powder coating gun (source: here): $119.99
- Note that the powder coating gun, plasma cutter, angle grinder, sand blaster, and powder coating were provided by the OEDK for this project.
Labor:
- Considering that $10 is a reasonable wage and that I spent about 6.5 hours working on this project: $10 per hour x 6.5 hours = $65
Total Cost:
- Without accounting for equipment costs: $9.99 + $5.86 + $5.97 + $8.59 + $7.28 + $80 = $102.69
- With accounting for equipment costs: $9.99 + $5.86 + $5.97 + $8.59 + $7.28 + $80 + $18 + $119.99 = $240.68
As for the metal leaf in that wooden car, I’ll think of something to do to post-process it. Perhaps I will design something inspired by a specific hockey team…
